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The Honest Truth About A Yoga Instructor Salary [2018]

“Is it all Lululemon yoga pants and Evian water? Or is it, you know…ramen noodles while sleeping in your parents’ spare room?”

The answer is… it’s up to you!

You can be the most incredible yoga teacher in the cosmos, and struggle to pay rent.

And as much as I hate to admit it, you don’t have to know a yama from a llama these days to make tons of cash.

Most of us didn’t spend decades studying Sanskrit, meditation, health and fitness science and yoga postures so we could eventually buy a Lamborghini.

Yet, that doesn’t mean that yogis deserve to struggle financially.

There’s a balance to be found, one that involves a great deal of honesty with yourself: why do I truly want to be a yoga teacher? Am I willing to do what it takes to earn a livable yoga instructor salary? At the end of the day, is the yoga the most important thing?

Whether you teach Iyengar yoga at a darling lil’ yoga studio, run individualized yoga therapy retreats at a forest retreat center, or draw on your strengths as a personal trainer in yoga and pilates sweat sessions at local health clubs, you can live on a yoga teacher salary.

Read on to learn how to make a career out of teaching yoga (a career with an actual salary!)

Yoga Instructor Salary

There seems to be more than a little bit of confusion surrounding the average salary of a certified yoga instructor.

In 2015, CNN ranked Pilates and yoga teaching as one of the best 100 jobs in America, with a median annual salary clocking in at… wait for it… $62,400.

Real US dollars, not Monopoly money. (I’m assuming…)

Now, depending on where you live in the United States, the notion of a $60K annual salary might sound pretty sweet….or wholly underwhelming.

To reach that figure, you would basically have to teach 26 yoga classes per week for a whole year, at the rate of $50 per class. This hourly rate is… shall we say, not extremely commonplace.

Which is why when someone asks “so, what’s an average salary of a yoga teacher?” you can’t just throw out five-figure salary figures and shout “NEXT QUESTION!”

How to Become a Yoga Instructor (That Actually Makes Money)

In 2018, the world of fitness trainers and instructors is rapidly changing. Studios and yoga schools are popping up in cities all over the world. In an effort to compete, many of them choose to offer yoga training programs to equip their students to teach yoga.

Many of these newly-trained registered and certified yoga instructors (or RYTs) may seek to only deepen their yoga practice or further their journey toward becoming a Pilates instructor or group fitness instructor. They won’t all choose to actually teach yoga in a yoga studio, gym or health club.

However, enough of them will.

There are enough yoga therapists looking for work that simply flipping through the pages of job advertisements in your local newspaper isn’t going to cut it.

You won’t be able to pay the bills simply by waiting for a yoga teacher job to fall into your lap.

By following these important steps and (most importantly!) committing to your own personal yoga practice and journey of self-discovery, you can become a thriving yoga instructor, make more than minimum wage, and support a lifestyle of mindfulness, gratitude, and generosity.

Step One: Train Like a Yogi

The first step to becoming a yoga teacher of abundance and comfort is to… become a yoga teacher.

These days, you can choose a yoga school in a variety of styles of yoga. Traditional styles such as Hatha yoga, Iyengar yoga, or Ashtanga Vinyasa are common for 200-hour teacher training programs. If you choose to register with Yoga Alliance, you can also log hours spent training in other styles of yoga.

This might seem like a no-brainer, but the more you learn, the better you will teach.

The more immersed you are in the teachings, the more authentic and valuable your presence will be in the classroom.

(Win, win, win.)

Win for the students in your yoga classes: they don’t have to listen to a fitness instructor just reading a script about yoga poses and breathing. Win for wherever you teach: better yoga teachers are more likely to have yogis who return to practice with them, generating more income for the gym or yoga studio.

And WIN for YOU! Whether you teach yoga full-time or as a part-time job, it’s exponentially more fulfilling to do something that you love. To work a job that you cannot get enough of.

About a year after completing my yoga teacher training course, I took a job working as an assistant teacher at a yoga and meditation retreat center. The yoga teacher salary wasn’t flashy, but it was enough to live simply.

I worked long days assisting yoga classes, deepening my personal training on the meditation cushion, refining my yoga teaching skills, and holding space for people all over the world.

Holding space. As in offering your complete presence, hosting your energy in the present moment, and ensuring a comfortable learning environment for the students who came to the retreat center.

Freshly-minted yogis (some with absolutely zero teaching experience!) would arrive at the retreat center and turn their noses up at tasks they deemed “unimportant” or below their standards. Hello, Ego.

Whether it was tidying up the props, waking up early to complete a personal yoga practice, or making an effort to connect with guests, these instructors said “nope.”

(They were not my co-workers for very long.)

The lesson here? As a yoga instructor, you don’t get paid so you can breeze into the yoga studio five minutes before the start of class, rattle off a list of yoga poses, and waltz off after 90 minutes.

You receive an hourly rate for being fully present with your teaching and students. Especially as a new yoga teacher. Fitness instructors with years of experience may have more freedom between classes to travel and prepare.

But the basic expectation is this: yoga instructor jobs go to the teachers who are fully present. Chatting with students about their chaturanga at the water cooler, organizing the yoga bolsters after a restorative yoga class, interacting with the people who pay money to practice yoga.

Step Three: Get Your Asana on a Schedule

If you are showing your smiling face around the yoga studio, then speak up. Ask about jobs. Ask about getting paid to do administrative, marketing, or retail work in between classes. Ask about getting paid to assist at the next special event or yoga training program.

In the United States, fitness trainers and instructors may be paid an hourly rate, minimum wage, a flat salary, a per-head bonus, or a combination.

Small studios may pay $35 per class, more established studios might pay up to $50 per class, and you might make $1-3 additional dollars per student after 10 students.

If you have years of experience, your salary figures may reach $75 or more per class.

If you teach private yoga sessions, you should investigate rates for personal trainers in your area. Your rates should be in the same ballpark. If you travel to your clients’ homes or places of work, you can charge more.

To boost your yoga instructor salary, consider selling private classes in packages, rather than session-by-session. This gives you a budgeting advantage and makes your clients more likely to stick with their yoga practice.

Step Four: Think Outside the Mat

Unless teaching yoga is just your part-time job, you will need to do more than teach classes to pay rent.

So, what do you do?

Teach private lessons. You can set your own prices, just like a personal trainer. Offer special workshops and special events that focus on your specialties or areas of interest. Are you a yoga and Pilates instructor? An arm balance junkie? A meditation enthusiast? Do all the yoga therapists in the land flock to your classes?

If you are looking to boost your yoga instructor salary, these are the ways to do it. But first, consider the three steps that come before. Before you go to post an Instagram photo in the hopes of attaining RYT stardom, check that you’ve covered your bases. Does your yoga serve you, or do you serve the yoga?

Final Words

This perhaps bears repeating: you don’t have to know a yama from a llama these days to make tons of cash.

But as a yoga teacher, is your goal to “make tons of cash?”

Are you a group fitness instructor who goes through the motions so you can live paycheck to paycheck? Do you belong with the leagues of personal trainers who care more about public image than their students’ wellbeing? Are “yoga teacher salary” the first words your eyes see as you scan job advertisements?

Do you simply want to make cash, or do you want to thrive?

Do you want to wake up each morning, awash in gratitude that you get to do what you love, determination to work hard enough and think creatively enough to earn what you need, and the humility to live a simple life, fully following the yogic path?

Do you want to teach from a place of exhaustion, of resentment, and greed?

Or do you want to teach yoga, earn a balanced yoga instructor salary, and live a yogic lifestyle: a life of love, kindness, and abundance?